Dear Friends of Wireless Messaging,

Greetings from cold and snowy Southern Illinois. For all those readers in the northern hemisphere, I hope you are staying warm.

EXCLUSIVE NEWS REPORT

Don't miss the exciting and revealing report from Ken Pearce on his trip to Haiti — in the LETTERS TO THE EDITOR section. Ken has reported some of his observations that you won't see on the television news.

Now on to more news and views.

Wireless Messaging News
Emergency Radio Communications Wireless Messaging Critical Messaging Telemetry Paging VoIP Wi-Fi WiMAX Location-Based Services	WIRELESS MESSAGING

This newsletter is brought to you by the generous support of our advertisers and the courtesy of iland Internet Solutions Corporation. For more information about the web-hosting services available from iland Internet Solutions Corporation, please click on their logo to the left.

There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world's major Paging and Wireless Data companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers — so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It's all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get readers' comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Data communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my web site. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it.

Editorial Opinion pieces present the opinions of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of AAPC, its publisher, or its sponsors.

Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, and Vic Jackson are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects. Click here  for a summary of their qualifications and experience. They collaborate on consulting assignments, and share the work according to their individual expertise and their schedules.

If you would like to have information about advertising in this newsletter, please click here.

American Association of Paging Carriers Announcing Battery Discount deal for AAPC members Are you paying too much for batteries? AAPC has negotiated a deal directly with Interstate Battery to help you — our members — receive lower rates on your battery purchases. If you currently pay $.25/AA Alkaline battery and order 500 batteries a month — you could be saving approximately $600/year. And for those of you who are not AAPC members, that could be the cost of your membership! Click here for an AAPC application. These rates are available for AAPC members only: AA HEAVY DUTY BATTERIES POWER PATROL (ADRY7710/BOX OF 40) $ .08/BATTERY $3.20/BOX AA ALKALINE BATTERIES POWERVOLT (ADRY0021/BOX OF 24) $ .15/BATTERY $3.60/BOX INTERSTATE (ADRY0070/BOX OF 24) $ .185/BATTERY $4.44/BOX PROCELL (ADRY1601/BOX OF 24) $ .35/BATTERY $8.40/BOX ENERGIZER (ADRY7505/BOX OF 24) $ .40/BATTERY $9.60/BOX AAA HEAVY DUTY BATTERIES POWER PATROL (ADRY7705/BOX OF 40) $ .08/BATTERY $3.20/BOX AAA ALKALINE BATTERIES POWERVOLT (ADRY0022/BOX OF 24) $ .14/BATTERY $3.36/BOX INTERSTATE (ADRY0075/BOX OF 24) $ .185/BATTERY $4.44/BOX PROCELL (ADRY1600/BOX OF 24) $ .35/BATTERY $8.40/BOX ENERGIZER (ADRY7500/BOX OF 24) $ .41/BATTERY $9.84/BOX To take advantage of this deal, you must contact Mark Dozier directly at Interstate Battery, 214-882-3800 or mark.dozier@ibsa.com, and identify yourself as an AAPC member. He will work with each individual carrier to set up a system that works for you. There are no minimum orders, he will use your own shipping accounts, and you will be able to preorder and/or establish an account. AAPC’s goal is to continue to unite the industry and advocate in our members’ best interest. If you have any questions or other suggestions on ways AAPC can help improve your business, please contact Linda at aapc@ec.rr.com.

Thanks to our Premier Vendor!

Prism Paging

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New Jersey Real-Time News

Morris County creates paging system to link emergency squads in one network

By Lawrence Ragonese/The Star-Ledger
February 17, 2010, 5:33PM

David Gard/For The Star-Ledger A Jan. 12, 2010 file photo of a Mendham Township's Brookside Fire Company's emergency vehicle. A new countywide pager system is aiming to coordinate all emergency and rescue efforts in Morris County.

MORRIS COUNTY — A new countywide emergency paging system has been created in Morris County that could one day link all firefighters and rescue squads in a 39-town coordinated alert network.

The new system allows emergency personnel to get alerts no matter where they are within the county’s borders, expanding a now limited network of mostly individual town paging systems that in many cases do not go far beyond municipal boundaries.

Ten of 14 towns that use the county’s emergency dispatch service will be the first to connect to the new system, with Morris Plains already using it. The long-term goal is to make the service available for fire and rescue teams in all towns, said county officials.

"We need a way to reliably connect all volunteers,’’ county Law and Public Safety Director Scott DiGiralomo said in a recent briefing of the county freeholders.

The county paid $400,000 to build the infrastructure of the network, which has 10 transmitters attached to existing communications towers across the county. A Fire Act grant of $215,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, plus $24,000 in matching municipal funds will provide a total of $239,000 to help the towns finance purchases of new pagers for their fire and rescue crews, said DiGiralomo.

The new pagers will cost about $400 apiece, officials said.

"The goal was to get everyone on a connected platform,’’ said Keith Heimburg, deputy coordinator of the Morris County Emergency Management Office. "We had a disparate and ineffective system. It is important to get our fire and EMS (Emergency Medical Services) people services better connected.’’

Initial participants are Boonton Township, Harding, the Mendhams, Mine Hill, Morris Plains, Mountain Lakes, Mount Arlington, Rockaway Borough and Wharton. Under the new system, emergency personnel working in or visiting another side of the county would be hooked into any alerts regarding their departments, said Morris County Freeholder Director Gene Feyl.

Traditionally, local fire departments and rescue squads have set up their own paging systems. But new federal and state emergency communications rules are pending in the next several years. With costly technology requirements, that may persuade towns outside the county’s system to join in the countywide emergency communications network, said Heimburg.

The infrastructure will be in place to handle extra towns, he said.

In addition to improving communications, the new paging system also should help cash-strapped towns save money. Mountain Lakes Business Administrator Barry Lewis, whose borough is serving as coordinating municipal agency for the project, called it a "great example of an effort to share services’’ and save tax dollars.

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Bill calls for cell phone radiation disclosure

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Friday, February 19, 2010

(02-19) 04:00 PST Sacramento —

Californians may soon easily know how much radiation is being emitted by their cellular phones under legislation introduced at the Capitol on Thursday.

The bill, authored by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would require manufacturers to print the radiation information on packaging and instruction manuals and for retailers to display that information on the sales floor.

Leno praised the technological advancements of cell phones. But, he said, "they also emit radio frequency radiation that does have human health effects." He called the legislation "a very modest proposal."

There is no scientific proof that cell phones cause cancer or other ailments, according to the Federal Communications Commission, though the federal government is monitoring the results of studies worldwide, according to the commission's Web site.

Leno pointed to studies from around the world that found people who have used cell phones for more than a decade had an increased risk of brain tumors, both malignant and benign, and benign tumors in the salivary glands. He said he believes looking at long-term effects is the most pressing need as cell phones become a ubiquitous accessory for both adults and younger people.

The bill is modeled after legislation under consideration at San Francisco City Hall that would require the radiation numbers to be posted in stores that sell the phones and in a font at least as big as the printed price. The cellular phone industry opposes both proposals.

Radiation levels are regulated by the FCC, which has set maximum radiation emission for cell phones at 1.6 watts per kilogram. The levels vary widely for cell phones and they are available to the public through the FCC Web site, though some information about specific phones is difficult to find through the commission.

The Environmental Working Group, a national nonprofit research and advocacy organization, has published the rates of phones and has a database on its Web site. A Blackberry Storm 9530, for example, emits 0.57 watts per kilogram while a Blackberry Bold 9700 emits 1.55 watts per kilogram. An Apple iPhone 3GS emits 1.19 watts per kilogram.

Renee Sharp, director of the group's California office, said creating the site was tedious and called the FCC's Web site to find the levels "incredibly confusing."

Even with the group's site, though, "the fact is when most people walk into a cell phone store, they're not going to be looking at Web sites. They need information there so they can compare the levels of phones right in front of them," Sharp said.

But the cell phone industry asserts that printing the information, known as the "specific absorption rate," on packaging or posting it in a store is unnecessary and would mislead consumers about the safety of the devices.

"All cell phones sold in the United States must comply with the FCC's limit. According to the FCC, 'any cell phone at or below these SAR levels is a 'safe' phone,' " said John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, in a statement.

Sharp said the FCC's data is "completely out of date." She said she is not suggesting that cell phones cause cancer, "but the evidence suggests that they might."

The proposal now must wait 30 days before a hearing can be scheduled.

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USA Mobility Sets Date to Report Fourth Quarter and 2009 Results

Investor Conference Call Scheduled

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — USA Mobility, Inc. (Nasdaq: USMO), a leading provider of wireless messaging and communications services, today announced it will report operating results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2009 on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at approximately 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time (ET).

In addition, the Company plans to host a conference call for investors on its fourth quarter and year-end results at 10:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, February 25, 2010. The dial-in number for the call is 877-419-6600 (toll-free) or 719-325-4839 (toll). The pass code for the call is 1151304. A replay of the call will be available from 3:00 p.m. ET on February 25 until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, March 11. The replay number is 888-203-1112 (toll-free) or 719-457-0820 (toll). The pass code for the replay is 1151304.

About USA Mobility

USA Mobility, Inc., headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a comprehensive provider of reliable and affordable wireless communications solutions to the HEALTHCARE, GOVERNMENT, LARGE ENTERPRISE and EMERGENCY RESPONSE sectors. As a single-source provider, USA Mobility's focus is on the business-to-business marketplace and supplying wireless connectivity solutions. The Company operates the largest one-way paging and advanced two-way paging networks in the United States. In addition, USA Mobility offers mobile voice and data services through SPRINT NEXTEL, including BLACKBERRY® SMARTPHONES and GPS location applications. The Company's product offerings include customized wireless connectivity systems for the healthcare, government and other campus environments. USA Mobility also offers M2M (MACHINE-TO-MACHINE) TELEMETRY SOLUTIONS for numerous applications that include asset tracking, utility meter reading and other remote device monitoring applications on a national scale. For further information visit HTTP://WWW.USAMOBILITY.COM.

SOURCE: USA Mobility, Inc.

USA Mobility, Inc.
Bob Lougee, 703-721-3080
BOB.LOUGEE@USAMOBILITY.COM

Snow Ices FCC, Congress

Two major snow storms struck the Washington, D.C., area last week and succeeded in putting the federal government on ice. The government was closed down Monday through Thursday of last week, leading into the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. As a result, the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee postponed scheduled hearings, and the FCC pushed back its open meeting until tomorrow, February 18.

As we reported last week, the following items will be on the meeting agenda:

• E-Rate: An Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enable schools that receive funding from the E-Rate program to allow members of the general public to use the schools’ Internet access during non-operating hours at no additional cost to the Universal Service Fund. This order and notice do not permit or require any changes to E-Rate applications due on February 11, 2010.
• Ex Parte Reform: A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to improve the transparency and effectiveness of the FCC’s decision-making process by reforming the ex parte rules.
• Procedural Reform: A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to enhance the efficiency, openness, and transparency of the Commission’s proceedings by improving and modernizing certain organizational and procedural rules.
• National Broadband Plan Status Report: Commission staff will report on the status of the National Broadband Plan, providing a framework for the national purposes portion of the Plan.

Additionally, the public forum to discuss the creation of an emergency response interoperability center for public safety broadband communications, which was originally scheduled for February 10, from 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room (TW-C305), will be rescheduled in the near future. And the fourth meeting of the Advisory Committee for the 2012 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12 Advisory Committee) scheduled for February 10, 2010, at 11:00 a.m., was postponed. The meeting has not yet been rescheduled.

Because of the numerous closings and disruptions caused by the weather, the FCC extended the deadline for all paper and electronic filings that were due February 5 through February 12 until February 16.

The Commission, on its own motion, also has granted an extension of the deadline for filing reply comments in the WC Docket No. 05-25 proceeding on the analytical framework necessary to resolve issues in the Special Access Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, originally due February 17, to February 24.

BloostonLaw contacts: Hal Mordkofsky, Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, and John Prendergast.

FCC Releases New Census Tract-Level Data On High Speed Internet Services

The FCC has released the first High-Speed Services for Internet Access report to be based on the new census tract-based Form 477 data collection requirements.

The FCC has collected information from facilities-based broadband service providers since 2000. In 2008, the FCC released orders implementing significant improvements to its data collection. As part of the improvements, providers of fixed-location Internet access connections faster than 200 kilobits per second (kbps) report connection counts at the census tract level as well as the state level. All reporting providers, including mobile wireless providers, report connection counts for an increased number of upload and download speed tiers. Therefore, for the first time, this report summarizes information about fixed-location Internet access connections in 3,232 counties and 66,287 census tracts and in 72 combinations of upload and download advertised transmission speeds. Additionally, the report summarizes information about subscribers with full Internet access at transmission speeds above 200 kbps as part of their mobile wireless service package.

New features of the report include:

• FCC estimates of the share of households with fixed-location high-speed connections in individual census tracts and counties, which indicate there are substantial areas of relatively low and high adoption. In 200 counties (6% of counties, containing 1% of U.S. households), the FCC estimates that no more than 20% of households had such connections, while in 104 counties (3% of counties, containing 8% of U.S. households) the FCC estimates that at least 80% of households had such connections. Fixed-location technologies include asymmetric and symmetric digital subscriber line (DSL), wireline technologies other than DSL, cable modem service, fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), satellite, fixed-wireless services provided by WISPs and others, power line, and other fixed-location technologies.
• New nationwide maps showing FCC estimates of household adoption rate ranges in individual census tracts – for fixed high-speed connections (that is, faster than 200 kbps in at least one direction) and separately for connections that meet the definition of broadband service used for the purposes of awarding broadband grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (that is, 768 kbps or higher advertised downstream speeds and upstream speeds above 200 kbps).
• More finely detailed maps of areas with multiple high-speed service providers. Instead of a single ZIP Code-based map combining providers of connections over all technologies and to both residential and business end users, the FCC now maps: (1) providers of total (combined residential and business) fixed-location connections by census tract, (2) providers of residential fixed-location connections by census tract, and (3) providers making mobile wireless high-speed service available by census tract.
• New charts illustrating the relationship between household subscribership, or adoption, rates and demographic factors, such as median household income, household density, and educational attainment.

Other report highlights include:

• High-speed Internet access connections to homes and businesses over fixed-location technologies increased by 10% during 2008, to 77 million. By contrast, the annual rate of increase was 17% during 2007.
• At year-end 2008, 25 million mobile wireless service subscribers had mobile devices (such as laptops and smartphones) with high-speed data plans for full Internet access. These subscribers are a subset of the 86 million subscribers whose mobile device was capable of transmitting information at speeds above 200 kbps, including subscribers who purchased only a voice service plan for the handset and subscribers whose data service included only customized-for-mobile content (for example, text and multimedia messaging, or the capacity to download ringtones and games). Because reporting practices previously varied among providers to a largely unknown degree, neither of the December 2008 figures is directly comparable to mobile wireless high-speed connections reported for earlier dates.
• Reported connections for the most widely adopted fixed-location technologies, cable modem and aDSL, increased by 14% and 3%, respectively, during 2008, to 41 million cable modem connections and 30 million aDSL connections, with the cable modem increase being partly due to more comprehensive reporting by small cable systems. A 56% increase in total FTTP connections, to 3 million, was the largest rate of increase among fixed-location technologies.
• Of the 102 million total high-speed connections at year-end 2008 (including residential and business fixed and mobile connections), 86 million (or 84% of the total) were faster than 200 kbps in both upstream and downstream directions, 77% met the definition of broadband service used for the purposes of awarding broadband grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (with 768 kbps or higher advertised downstream speeds and upstream speeds above 200 kbps), 49% had downstream speeds of 3 megabits per second (mbps) or more and upload speeds above 200 kbps, 34% had down-stream speeds of 6 mbps or more and upload speeds above 200 kbps, and 11% had down-stream speeds of 10 mbps or more and upload speeds above 200 kbps.
• For fixed-location technologies as a group, 89% of connections met the definition of broadband service used for the purposes of awarding broadband grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (with 768 kbps or higher advertised downstream speeds and up-stream speeds above 200 kbps). Among mobile wireless subscribers whose subscription included a data plan for full Internet access, 41% of subscriptions met the definition.

The report also includes statistics for residential high-speed connections at the national level and substantially expanded state-by-state information. The state-by-state information includes expanded information about speed tiers of connections in service in each state and newly available information about the distribution of counties and census tracts according to our estimated household adoption rates for fixed high-speed connections.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, John Prendergast, and Mary Sisak.

VIRGINIA RECEIVES TWO BTOP GRANTS TOTALING $21.5 MILLION: The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has announced two grants totaling more than $21.5 million to expand broadband Internet infrastructure in Virginia. Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, enhance and expand public computer centers, and encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service. The two grants will add 575 miles of new high-speed Internet infrastructure in southern Virginia.

Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative: $16 million infrastructure grant with an additional $4 million in applicant-provided matching funds to add 465 miles of new fiber that will directly connect 121 K-12 schools in southern Virginia to an existing 800-mile, fiber, high-speed network. By improving connection speeds for these schools from 1.5 Mbps to at least10 Mbps, these new fiber connections will allow the schools, many in isolated areas, to take advantage of distance learning and virtual classroom opportunities. In addition, the expanded fiber network will spur affordable broadband service to local consumers by enabling more than 30 Internet service providers to connect to the project’s open network.

Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc.: $5.5 million infrastructure grant with an additional $1.4 million in applicant-provided matching funds to add 110 miles of open access, fiber-optic network between Blacksburg and Bedford City—an existing network operated by the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative. The resulting network will cross six counties in Virginia’s Appalachian region, and provide direct, high-speed connections to Virginia Tech’s main campus in Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, enhancing the ability for both institutions to collaborate on cutting-edge medical and other scientific research with institutions in the United States and abroad.

BloostonLaw contacts: Ben Dickens, Gerry Duffy, John Prendergast, and Mary Sisak.

GOOGLE PLANS TO TEST SUPER-FAST BROAD-BAND NETWORK: Google has announced that it will begin testing a new broadband network that will deliver speeds of more than 100 times faster than traditional broadband, according to CNN Money. Google said it is aiming to link up with states and municipalities to build and test a fiber-optic network that will offer download speeds of about 1 gigabit per second, according to a blog post on the company's Web site. Google said that speed would be fast enough to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. The company said the network would offer wire-line service directly to consumers' homes at "a competitive price." The net-work will be built by Google, but consumers will be able to choose their service provider. Google expects the test will provide its service to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people, according to CNN. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) both said in statements that they hoped Google's test would help usher in a new era of ultra-high-speed Internet access to increase America's global competitiveness. "Big broadband creates big opportunities," Genachowski said. "This significant trial will provide an American test bed for the next generation of innovative, high-speed Internet apps, devices, and services."

This newsletter is not intended to provide legal advice. Those interested in more information should contact the firm.

Source: Blooston, Mordkofsky, Dickens, Duffy and Prendergast, LLP For additional information, contact Hal Mordkofsky at 202-828-5520 or halmor@bloostonlaw.com

UPDATE 1-Motorola extends and amends Jha's employment terms

Tue Feb 16, 2010 3:27pm EST

Jha agreement extended from October 2010 to June 2011

STOCKS

• If split does not happen he gets $38 mln

• If split takes place he gets 1.8-3 pct of new entity

NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Motorola Inc (MOT.N) said on Tuesday it extended its employment agreement with Co-CEO Sanjay Jha to June 2011 from October this year and raised the amount they would pay the executive if the company achieves its plan to split in two.

Jha would now be eligible to receive a payment of $38 million, up from $30 million, if Motorola does not go ahead with its plan to separate the mobile phone and set-top box business into a separate entity, the company said.

If the separation does happen and other conditions are met, Motorola said Jha would get an equity award ranging from 1.8 percent to 3 percent of the new entity's outstanding shares, depending on its market value after the split.

His old agreement promised a fixed 3 percent award after the split, Motorola said.

The news follows Motorola's announcement on Thursday that it would split the business in two in the first quarter of 2011.

Effective last week, Jha took on responsibility for Motorola's home business, which sells set top boxes, as well as its mobile phone business, of which he was already in charge.

Co-CEO Greg Brown heads the rest of Motorola which includes its enterprise and network equipment business.

NEWS FLASH — SATELLITE FAILURES

• January 11, 1997—Telstar 401 suffers a short in the satellite circuitry—TOTAL LOSS May 19, 1998—Galaxy 4 control processor causes loss of fixed orbit—TOTAL LOSS September 19, 2003—Telstar 4 suffers loss of its primary power bus—TOTAL LOSS March 17, 2004—PAS-6 suffers loss of power—TOTAL LOSS
• January 14, 2005—Intelsat 804 suffers electrical power system anomaly—TOTAL LOSS

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Report: WiMAX to Cover 1 Billion by 2011

Posted In: WiMAX | Wireless Networks | FirstNews
By Maisie Ramsay
Thursday, February 18, 2010

The WiMAX Forum is reporting that WiMAX technology now covers 620 million people in 147 countries around the world. Further, it expects that figure to hit one billion by the end of 2011.

"WiMAX networks continue to expand at a very healthy pace despite challenges from the slowly recovering global economy," said WiMAX Forum President and Chairman Ron Resnick in a statement. "These new deployment numbers and population statistics demonstrate that the WiMAX ecosystem has strong momentum for the start of the New Year and will continue to meet the global market demand for high-speed broadband access in developed and emerging regions."

The WiMAX Forum also said the growing device ecosystem of 4G devices would help spur growth over the next year. More than 178 devices were WiMAX-certified in 2009 and ten were certified in the first month of 2010. The Forum estimates there will be more than 1,000 certified devices on the market by 2011.

WiMAX is most widely adopted in the Asia Pacific region, where there are 100 network deployments covering 237 million people. Central American and Latin America come in second with 109 deployments covering 113 million people. Africa and the Middle East have 142 deployments covering 108 million people while Europe's 153 deployments cover 115 million people.

North America came in last, where WiMAX technology covers 47 million people thanks in large part to the efforts of Clearwire. The company plans to roll out its 4G service in several large metro areas over the next year including New York and San Francisco with the goal of covering 120 million people by the end of the year.

"The expansion of our footprint will help meet the pent up demand for true mobile broadband in the U.S. and allow us to continue to serve as a global resource for best practices in 4G network development around the world," said Clearwire Senior Vice President of Global Ecosystem and Standards Ali Tabassi in a statement.

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Verizon and Skype - Who's the Winner?

By Jon Arnold
Principal, J Arnold & Associates
February 19, 2010

Although I didn’t attend, this week’s Mobile World Congress seemed like a fitting stage for news of this nature. Until only recently, has it been remotely plausible to consider such different companies joining forces. I’ve written about Skype often, and for the most part, they’ve been a threat for incumbents of all stripes. To hear about this from Verizon during such a public event makes it very clear that the sands are shifting once more, and yet again, VoIP is the culprit.

Skype (News - Alert) has upset another apple cart, but I’m more inclined to put a positive spin on things, and say the opposite. No doubt the golden egg of wireless is poised to go the way of the RBOCs in the wireline world, and that’s not good for the major mobile operators. On the other hand, this trend is inevitable, and in time, all mobile voice calls will be IP, running over a data network. Service providers are well aware of the risks of waiting too long, where either an established asset becomes a liability, or they miss the boat the first time around.

Think about the wireline incumbents, who of course, were the last to embrace VoIP. They’ve hung on too long, and that market is going away either to cablecos or wireless. We all know that today’s youth will never have landlines, so there really is no future in this market. Think about how Verizon Wireless turned down the iPhone, and what a winner it’s been for AT&T (News - Alert). Verizon Wireless has a pretty healthy business, but they’ve never had an answer for Apple.

Skype, on the other hand, has its own challenges. Having gone to Silver Lake, they have debt to manage now. Their growth story is still intact, but the business model has inherent limitations, and this has led them to seek closer ties with service providers. The business market could be a great opportunity for them, but they need carrier partners to really make this work. They absolutely need to grow beyond the desktop, and their efforts to date have been moderately successful, but a far cry from being a real growth driver.

I am sure you can see where this is going. Verizon and Skype both have needs, and face some common enemies. They are hardly complementary and have no warmth in their history. However, when long term survival is at stake, you can rationalize anything, and at face value, its news on Tuesday makes good business sense. Verizon gets access to Skype’s huge global community, which they expect will be a great driver of data traffic over their 3G network.

Also, with Skype being mostly a voice service, you don’t need an iPhone (News - Alert) to use it. Any smartphone will do, so in lieu of offering the iPhone, Verizon can now create a distinct value proposition built around the smartphones they want to offer. This may not totally neutralize AT&T’s handset advantage, but it gives Verizon a different advantage that comes by not being an Apple (News - Alert) partner.

With Skype, Verizon has more levers to control the overall value proposition, and not be held hostage to the demands of Apple, who have radically shifted the traditional balance of power between operators and handset vendors. I would argue that this matters to Verizon, especially when all evidence points to the superiority of their network over AT&T. An example of this control is the fact that Verizon’s deal with Skype precludes the use of WiFi (News - Alert). This ensures that Skype calls are routed over their network and not someone else’s. It’s not clear how long they’ll be able to uphold this, but for now, it helps make their data plan more attractive, hopefully to the point where people will think twice about going to AT&T just for the iPhone.

Interestingly, Skype’s deal is not exclusive to Verizon, as they do have an iPhone app with AT&T, so they actually get the best of both worlds. However, with Verizon, they get an instant bolt-on to a huge subscriber base and integration with every top smartphone not made by Apple. We don’t know the revenue sharing details, but I have no doubt the financial upside is attractive for Skype. It’s also not clear how using Skype for IM will impact Verizon’s SMS revenues - which could be substantial – but I’m sure they’ll figure this one out.

Thinking more strategically, Apple may be the coolest tech brand ever, but Skype has cachet too, and Verizon knows this is a great way to gain overnight credibility with the youth market, as well as business users (and their addictive BlackBerrys), both of which are heavy Skype users.

I’m keeping this analysis high level, mainly because the details would make this a very long piece, and they’ve been dissected extensively by bloggers who followed this minute-by-minute. These are definitely worth exploring, and good starting points are here, here and here. There are many items I haven’t touched on here, but from my view, I’d say both companies come out as winners.

Skype brings more to Verizon than to AT&T and the iPhone, and the longer mobile operators ignore VoIP, the more they stand to lose. Sure, those long distance and roaming charges will be hard to give up, but they won’t disappear entirely any time soon. More importantly, anyone using mobile broadband knows there are cheaper ways to make phone calls, and customer goodwill will turn into goodbye if carriers stand still.

With IP, the economics of voice change big time, and there’s no turning back. What happened to wireline will be repeated with wireless, and this news with Skype and Verizon is a major inflection point in the evolution of mobile. The iPhone was a big one for sure, but I think this will be bigger as it will cause every mobile carrier to rethink their core business plans. It will be very interesting to see who makes the next move, and how they will respond, and you can be sure I’ll have something to say about it soon after.

Easy Solutions provides cost effective computer and wireless solutions at affordable prices. We can help in most any situation with your communications systems. We have many years of experience and a vast network of resources to support the industry, your system and an ever changing completive landscape.

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Wireless Communication Solutions

USB Paging Encoder

• Single channel up to eight zones
• Connects to Linux computer via USB
• Programmable timeouts and batch sizes
• Supports 2-tone, 5/6-tone, POCSAG 512/1200/2400, GOLAY
• Supports Tone Only, Voice, Numeric, and Alphanumeric
• PURC or direct connect
• Pictured version mounts in 5.25" drive bay
• Other mounting options available
• Available as a daughter board for our embedded Internet Paging Terminal (IPT)

Paging Data Receiver (PDR)

• Frequency agile - only one receiver to stock
• USB or RS-232 interface
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• 16 capcodes
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Other products

• Please see our web site for other products including Internet Messaging Gateways, Unified Messaging Servers, test equipment, and Paging Terminals.

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RIM Unveils WebKit Internet Browser to Compete With IPhone

February 16, 2010, 08:53 AM EST

By Hugo Miller and Diana ben-Aaron

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry phone, unveiled an overhauled Internet browser for its devices today to attract more non-business customers.

“Today we are announcing an exciting new offering that further expands the market opportunity for the BlackBerry platform,” said Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive officer and inventor of the BlackBerry. Lazaridis showed the new WebKit browser at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

In October, RIM introduced a revamped version of the Storm — a larger-screen BlackBerry for easier browsing — to respond to mixed reviews of the first edition and competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Motorola Inc.’s Droid. RIM needs to improve its browsers to attract consumers in a market overflowing with competing devices, said Steven Li, an analyst at Raymond James Ltd. in Toronto.

“RIM’s competitors have brought better browsers to the market over the past two years, and RIM has had to play catch- up,” said Li. “RIM has to improve theirs given they’ve made the non-business customer focus such a big part of their strategy.” He has a “market perform” rating on the shares and doesn't own any.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company bought browser-design firm Torch Mobile Inc. last year and has increased the number of Web patents it filed with the U.S. Patent Office fivefold since 2007, according to data from the agency.

The WebKit browser will be available on BlackBerrys this year, Lazaridis said in an interview yesterday, declining to be more specific. “You’ll see how fast it downloads, how quickly it renders and how smooth it scrolls and zooms in,” he said.

Capacity Crunch

Blackberry users take up one third the network space of other browser users, easing a coming capacity crunch spurred by smartphone use, he said.

“Typical operators are likely to find their available spectrum completely consumed in the next three to five years,” Lazaridis said, citing a report by Hood River, Oregon-based researcher Peter Rysavy.

The industry needs to take data volumes into account in its charges, increasing incentives for efficiency, the co-CEO said.

RIM is also introducing a new, free software platform for small-business users, known as the BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, Lazaridis said. The product will help RIM and its carrier partners add smaller corporate customers with fewer than 200 BlackBerry users, he said.

Mobilizing Workforces

“As the world’s gone through the economic crisis in the last little while, there’s renewed interest in productivity gains,” Lazaridis said. “What we’re seeing is a renewed interest in mobilizing workforces.”

RIM rose $2.16 to $71.33 on Feb. 12 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock climbed 66 percent last year, lagging behind gains by Apple and Motorola. U.S. exchanges were closed yesterday for Presidents’ Day.

From: Ken Pearce
Subject: Haiti Trip
Date: February 16, 2010 10:00:03 PM CST
To: Brad Dye
Reply-To: kpearce1 kpearce1@ix.netcom.com

Hey Brad,

I have been real busy since I got back from Mom's funeral. Thanks for the write up. Here is some stuff you can use. Just edit it and use what you want. I don't want glory just a little report to let people know that radio and paging is still alive, and of course they called a ham to go get it working!

My church is very big on ham radio and it looks like from the Amateur Newsline reports hams are working on lots of stuff in Haiti since I was there.

Ken

Upon my arrival in Haiti on January 21, 2010, I found myself immersed in a world of chaos. The massive magnitude 7.0 earthquake did not cause the chaos. The US Air Force, its security teams, US State Department Diplomatic Security Agents (I was glad to see them), US Customs Border Patrol, US Department of Homeland Security, US Transportation Security Agency, US Immigration Customs Enforcement, US DEA, US FAA, the Haitian Police, and finally the United Nations were causing the chaos.

Everyone was running their own show and there was no communications being used, that I could see, either by an agency or between them. Very few agencies were equipped with a radio of any kind. The only ones with communications were the US Air Force Security, the United Nations, the US Air Force, and FAA aircraft communications.

The display of weapons, tactical gear, and clean pressed uniforms with shiny badges was impressive. However this was on the flight line side of the airport. Once you cross the line to the outside, for all intents and purposes you are on your own. The sights, smells, destruction, and thousands of hungry, hopeless, injured, and sick people just walking around are mind-boggling.

While there are some who will approach you and ask for money or food, most of them just keep to themselves. Facilities and Hygiene are not available in most areas so you have to come prepared. Most all of the hotels were destroyed and the media had the others. I carried a backpack with 10 days food (MRE’s), clothes, first aid, tent, sleeping pad, water purification system, tools and radio equipment. I was also equipped with another survival kit provided by the church that sent me with more food, and supplies. Inside the main pack I had a daypack with Camelback Bladder and special hydration chemicals.

My mission was to install a small commercial repeater, and deploy fifty handheld radios. These radios were to be used by my church for various relief operations. I had brought the repeater, antenna, coax cable, and twenty-five handheld radios with me. I was also to install a Satellite Communications Center that would be delivered to me later along with the other twenty-five hand-held radios.

My mission was entirely volunteer, but the church paid for most of the expenses. In addition I was sent in alone. The logistics to get equipment, the flights, and me into Haiti were quite an adventure. I could write another story on just the travel there and back. Prior to my being asked to go, the Dominican Radio Club had attempted to install some ham radio and commercial gear in Haiti. Reports from the ARRL Website told of a harrowing ambush in which one of their eight member team was hit by gunfire and seriously wounded. I was handed this web article just prior to boarding the flight to Port-au-Prince.

I had worked in Haiti many years ago, and I understand their culture. I never once feared for my safety. Within twelve hours of my arrival the repeater was safely installed on a mountain and providing street level coverage to most of the population. The relief work, medical services, and supplies had been severely hindered because of lack of communications. As soon as I deployed the first radios it was like a new era, people and supplies began moving and more radios meant better efficiency. Not many times in my forty plus years in communications have I ever witnessed the profound effect of what simple radio communications can do. Food, Doctors, and Medical Supplies were being coordinated to the areas where they were needed, and daily meetings of church staff could now be handled in real time instead of waiting for face to face meetings. I personally witnessed many other relief organizations with the same communications issues. One very large organization had each vehicle equipped with HF long-range radios capable of worldwide communications, but they couldn't talk to another vehicle or their office in Haiti only a few blocks away. I was asked to assist another organization with their Satellite Communications Center, as it was not working. I found that they had intended to use their setup as a high speed Internet data device. They had intended to connect a computer network for e-mail and Internet service. They were disappointed to learn that the system could not handle this loading. Great Satellite signal but lots of data connection problems and dropped call plagued them until they turned it off and started using human couriers.

Cellular Phones were working only sporadically at best — for voice calls. Text was working at almost 100 percent reliability on most carriers. In addition there was little latency on the text side. The longest I had to wait was under a minute on my Verizon phone. A voice call could be made once in a while, usually nights being a better bet. Satellite Phones were surprisingly the most unreliable of all. The Inmarsat System was severely overloaded. Since 9-11 just about everyone has a Satellite Phone and the present system configuration simply cannot handle the loading during such a massive disaster response.

Two-Way paging would have definitely been a hit here simply because text messaging just seems to work better in this type situation. One-way Paging would be good too — except the landline phone service was heavily damaged and was sparsely covered in country. Two-Way radio would be better simply because you can go device to device.

For all of its diverse culture and being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, just about every Haitian I saw had a cell phone. I also saw many with laptop computers. There were pockets of WI-FI coverage that were still working, but I was told that much of the wireless Internet system had been destroyed. I did not try to use WI-FI even though my cell phone is capable of it, so I can’t confirm WI-FI coverage. Most of the church offices were equipped with Hughes Net or DirectWay Satellite Internet service, and that seemed to work. I tried the magicJack™ telephone adapter and it worked very well, as did Skype.

I have worked a lot of major disasters over the years, and I can tell you first hand that lack of reliable communications is the root cause of the other disasters that occur within the original disaster. The first being lack of timely rescue, welfare, medical and humanitarian aid being where it needs to be when it needs to be. The second being the overall lack of communications between the many government agencies, and mutual communications between the various relief agencies. The third and most important is the lack of any sort of command, control, or communications structure. This results in everyone running their own show and there is no organization of the efforts. For the communications part all you need is just simple two-way radios and two-way paging — for device-to-device coverage. Not everyone should have a Satellite Phone and not everyone needs a radio either. We deployed radios to the group supervisors, high-level area managers and drivers/interpreters only, and it worked out really well.

Overall my trip was a success. I completed my mission, met a lot of good people, and most of all it felt good to help others out. As I was leaving many Haitians came up to me and told me there is a need for communications, towers need to be rebuilt, existing equipment needs repaired and opportunities exist to provide communications for the rebuilding of a country.

Feb 16, 2010

Hi Brad.

Thanks for the newsletter.

I read the article in the February 5th issue about the paging carrier shutting down their transmitter servicing Portola and surrounding areas.

Fact is, USA Mobility has been downscaling their network for a long time. I rent space on several towers, and a few to USA Mobility.  A couple of years ago, USA Mobility had a rep phone me and tell me that they are going to renegotiate their lease payment amounts to a number they decide upon, and if I didn't like it, they would just pull out.  They did pull all of their gear out of two sites, but still have gear an one of my sites, and are paying about 1/3 what they were a couple years ago.  Also, they did downsize their footprint in my building by pulling out a couple of transmitters, only leaving one 1-way transmitter and their 2-way paging rack.

As a result of their mass pull-out in California, including some populated areas, in just 6 months the coverage of my 2-way pager went from fairly good to horrible, and eventually non-existent.  I called and talked to tech support.  They told me to change the pager, etc.  I told them I was looking at their frequency on my service monitor and had barely enough signal to break squelch, even with an outdoor antenna, and that I doubted the pager was the problem.  More phone calls later and someone at USA Mobility told me (under her breath) that they had pulled transmitters out of the areas and cities I mentioned, and that they had no plans of restoring coverage there. Even the still used USA Mobility 'Nationwide' frequency is almost non-existent at my home now.

I finally cancelled my 2-way pager and continue to carry my 1-way pager that is on Cook's VHF system.  it still covers the areas I travel to and from nicely.

It is difficult to say whether paging customers would keep their service if the coverage was still there, or how much of the decline in customer base has to do with the downgrading of the paging networks.  But I can vouch for this long-time customer that wants his paging service back, and would re-subscribe if coverage was restored.

I agree with you, it is frustrating.  With paging on the decline, why do companies shoot themselves in the foot, ankle, knee, and hip and then wonder why their customers are leaving in droves??  I seriously doubt paging would die if some effort was put into improving coverage and some advertising. The cellular carriers are all over TV, print, billboards, etc.  Yet, if you want a pager, you have to go online and diligently search.  NO local sales, NO local service, and NO local coverage.  It is NO wonder paging is on the decline!!  And companies like USA Mobility are doing everything possible to take it to the grave as quickly as financially possible.

Might want to obscure the name, or use a different one, if you please.  I don't need USA Mobility pulling out of the last site I have them on.

Thanks!

Name withheld at writer's request.

“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.”

— C.S. Lewis